The Reading Phillies slugger continued his otherworldly hot streak Wednesday, homering for the fifth straight game to breathe life into his club's comeback bid.

The streaking Phils, down five runs midway through their pivotal Eastern League battle with visiting Trenton, used Ruf's two-run homer to spark a four-run sixth-inning rally.

It ultimately fell short with Eastern Division-leading Thunder snapping its seven-game losing streak by holding on for a 6-5 victory.

Still it felt as though the Phillies (66-57), who had won 15 of 20 to climb back into the playoff chase, had won again.

Maybe just having Ruf in the lineup makes it seem that way.

The 26-year-old All-Star homered for the league-leading 29th time. He has six homers in his last five games, seven in his last eight and 11 in his last 12.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Reading manager Dusty Wathan.

Wathan wasn't around in 2004 when Ryan Howard was putting together a similar slugging show.

Howard, then 24, homered five times in one six-game stretch in late June and early July.

He homered 11 times in a 12-game stretch.

Sound familiar?

The big guy clubbed 16 homers during a lethal 24-game midsummer stretch that helped him set the club record of 37 before he departed for Triple-A on the final day of July.

No one around here had ever seen anything like it.

Ruf has come as close as anyone of duplicating it. He may have set a Reading Phillies record by homering in a fifth straight game - no one's sure if that's ever been done over the past 46 seasons.

"I'm recognizing the pitches out of the pitcher's hand a little bit earlier than I have," said Ruf, explaining his recent success. "That doesn't limit me on what pitches I swing at. I feel like I'm recognizing it early enough that if it's in the zone I can square it up."

In 15 August games he's batting .362 with 16 RBIs and 16 runs scored.

The stretch has stamped him as the Eastern League MVP favorite and pushed his team back into the playoff race after it fell to .500 last month.

"I'm just trying to do everything I can to help us win," said Ruf. "It (the homer) gave us a little bit of life. If I can keep doing that, that would be good."

The Phils might have won and perhaps delivered a knockout blow to the reeling Thunder had it not been for three second-inning errors by right fielder Leandro Castro that led to three unearned runs.

Castro dropped a fly ball for the first error, then committed two errors on the same play when he overran a single, then hit the batter/runner sliding into second.

It hurt too that reliever Colby Shreve forced home the sixth Trenton run with a bases-loaded walk after taking over for Austin Hyatt in the fifth.

A comeback win would've pulled the Phils within three games of first place. They still have 19 left to make up that distance or to pass second-place New Britain, which leads Reading by one game.

Ruf is confident it will happen.

"That's the way we have to finish things out, not count ourselves out of a game no matter how far we're down," he said. "We have a great lineup, a very good bullpen and solid starting pitching. With that combination and the players we have in the locker room, we feel like we can win every game."

Phillers: Julio Rodriguez has been removed from the starting rotation. He pitched effectively in relief Wednesday, striking out seven over three scoreless innings. . . As part of Military Appreciation Night, Marine Sgt. Josh Linderman, a Schuylkill Valley grad, surprised his expectant wife, Sara, as she made a ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday's game. Linderman, dressed in Reading Phillies catching gear was not expected home until later this month. . . Only three Reading Phillies have homered 30 times in a season: Greg Luzinski (1970), Willie Darkis (1983) and Ryan Howard (2004).